The controversy over the $20,000,000 loan given by the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) to the Chinese cement importer Juan Carlos Bolaños will not count on government intervention for the time being, as President Luis Guillermo Solís said on Thursday.
According to Luis Guillermo Solís, if the government intervenes on the board of the BCR, it could “further entangle the issue” and it could even “be suspicious.”
The Costa Rican financial system is delicate and when governments begin to take measures that insinuate intervention in the processes where the boards of directors of the banks are the first responsible, uncertainty begins to prevail and in some cases people suspect that the government is trying to hide something or benefit someone,”
said Solís.
According to the President, if he or the Governing Council intervenes the board of the BCR the situation could be very confusing.
The press unveiled an audio where the Chinese cement importer and Guillermo Quesada, deputy manager of the bank, allegedly speak. In the recording, the alleged Bolaños asks the BCR official to say he was the one who violated the banking secrecy.
Then the important one is not going to be you,”
tells Bolaños to Quesada, assuring him that he will be able to sue the bank.
I have insisted very much on the subject of investigations, because I have nothing to hide, so I don’t have problems with investigations to clarify what needs clarifying,”
said the president.
Opposition legislators and Ottón Solís himself have been very critical of the Executive’s actions in this case, assuring that they seem to want to minimize the event. The questions and the complaint about a possible scam to the BCR led the president of the bank board to resign.